Departmentof Information and Public Relations, Chandigarh, Punjab, January 2: ChiefMinister Captain Amarinder Singh led Punjab Government is all set to transformthe state into a leading state in medical education, said Punjab CabinetMinister Om Prakash Soni.
Duringa media interaction, Soni said that at the time when the lockdown / curfew wasimposed in the state in March 2020 in the wake of virus outbreak, there was nofacility to test samples of suspected corona patients as earlier such samplesused to be sent to Pune for testing.
Theminister further said that on the directions of the Chief Minister CaptainAmarinder Singh, the state government had set up an immense mechanism in thegovernment hospitals, with the procurement of equipments worth crores of rupeesfrom abroad to test covid-19 samples.
Pointingout further, Soni said that as many as 21,000 tests per day were beingconducted in 3 labs of Government Medical Colleges of the state besides 5500tests were being conducted daily in 4 new labs (2 Mohali, 1 Ludhiana and 1Jalandhar) taking total tally of RT-PCR tests per day to a total of 26500. Sonisaid that it was a matter of pride for all of us that currently the lab of GovernmentMedical College, Patiala has the capacity to perform 10,000 tests per day whichis highest in the country.
Disclosingmore, Soni said that during the Covid epidemic the department had set up atotal of 1500 isolation beds in three government medical colleges in Punjabincluding 1324 oxygen beds, and 392 ICU beds. In addition, 277 ventilators and 50 high flow cannulas were alsoprovided for critical care of Covid patients. Further, about 250 private hospitals in Punjab have been roped-in tojoin the fight against Covid pandemic. He added experts from AIIMS Delhi, andPGI Chandigarh rendered their services under the leadership of Dr. K.K. Talwar,the state health advisor.
Theminister said that, during the pandemic Captain government had set up 3 newplasma banks in the government medical colleges.
In amove to strengthen the department, as many as 293 doctors, 211 nurses, and 20paramedical staff were recruited during the year 2020 which helped in improvingthe efficiency of the department, and 1822 additional posts were sanctioned onoutsourced basis.
Sonistated that, a separate cadre of posts to be created in the year 2021 to makethe Department of Medical Education and Research more agile, accurate andup-to-date.
Underthe restructuring policy, some cadres like Nurses, Radiographers will beseparated to enhance the efficiency of the department, he added.
Threenew medical colleges were being started in Punjab at a cost of about Rs.1000crore adding the minister said that medical college Mohali to be started in2021. The Medical Colleges of Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala have been sanctioned bythe Government and they would be started in 2022, the minister said.
Hesaid that soon a burn unit would be started at Rajindra Hospital Patiala and atrauma center would also be set up. The state of the art cancer center beingset up at Amritsar at a cost of Rs. 120 crore which would be ready by the year2021. The center will have a capacity of150 beds. Similarly a separatedepartment of Virology would be started at Government Medical College,Amritsar, he added.
Lecturehalls, examination halls and hostels would be set up in the medical college ata cost of about Rs. 58 crore adding Sonisaid that about Rs. 28 crore would be spent for Boundary Wall, Mortuary,Nursing Hostel, Laundry Plant etc.
Hesaid that a new sub-station would be set up at Amritsar Medical College to meetthe power shortage. The super-specialty block and five new operation theaterswere being set up at Faridkot and two new hostels would be set up at Jalalabadand one at Goindwal Sahib along with a pharmacy building at a cost of about Rs.5 crore. Diploma courses are being started at Baba Farid University Hospital atBadal and Jalalabad. While under KheloIndia Khelo scheme an indoor stadium was being constructed at Baba FaridUniversity Faridkot at a cost of Rs. 6 crore.
Hesaid that Punjab Government has initiated proceedings for setting up of Stateof Art Advanced Virology Center at a cost of Rs. 550 crore in Mohali, in whichvirology education, research and testing facilities will be provided. This project is being funded by ICMR.
Therecruitment will be started after creating new posts in Dental College, Patialaand Amritsar. Similarly, PGI SatelliteCenter Sangrur would be completed in 2021-22 and the construction work ofSatellite Center, Ferozepur would be started soon. He stated that new postswould be created and recruited at Ayurvedic College, Patiala, further addingthat proposal for setting up a new college and hospital at Guru RavidasAyurvedic University, Hoshiarpur was under consideration.
TheDepartment of Medical Education and Research was proposing to recruit 726persons under the Ghar Ghar Rozgar Yojana next year including 142 doctors, 189nurses and 234 technicians, he added.
Thedepartment has played a pivotal role in combating the Corona virus whichprevented major casualties in the state, the minister concluded.